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EDITORIAL: Expand medical pot program

Advocates for full legalization of marijuana in New Jersey are hopeful that under the next governor their dream will become a reality. But until that time comes — if it comes — officials cannot lose sight of the need to improve and expand the medical marijuana program already in place.

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OPINION

EDITORIAL: Expand medical pot program

Published 6:08 p.m. ET May 15, 2017

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The campaign to legalize marijuana achieved a major breakthrough, with victories in at least six states on Election Day, including California. Three other states, Florida, Arkansas and North Dakota, voted to allow pot for medical purposes. (Nov. 9)
AP

Advocates for full legalization of marijuana in New Jersey are hopeful that under the next governor their dream will become a reality. But until that time comes — if it comes — officials cannot lose sight of the need to improve and expand the medical marijuana program already in place.

We were encouraged, therefore, by recent recommendations from the state’s Medicinal Marijuana Review Panel to add five new conditions to the program’s eligibility list. Those conditions include chronic pain related to musculoskeletal disorders, migraines, anxiety, chronic pain of visceral origin and Tourette syndrome.

The changes would go a long way toward raising the medical pot program to the level it should have enjoyed all along. New Jersey’s program is considered among the most restrictive in the nation, largely thanks to the lack of support from Gov. Chris Christie.

Christie inherited former Gov. Jon Corzine’s approval of medicinal marijuana before a system to provide it had even been fully conceived. It was an awkward moment for Christie to be stepping into that particular issue since he wouldn’t have approved it himself. The governor’s answer was to drag his feet throughout the implementation process, creating various obstacles to delay and minimize distribution. Christie also worked to limit access with restraints on the types of conditions and the circumstances under they would be deemed eligible.

Christie’s opposition to pot also doesn’t seem to fit with his aggressive effort to combat opioid addiction, which is often triggered by prescription pain relief that could potentially be provided more harmlessly by marijuana. But Christie continues to denounce pot as a gateway drug that should not be legalized.

The governor, however, hasn’t been entirely oblivious to the benefits of medical marijuana. Last year he signed off on adding post-traumatic stress disorder as an eligible condition, but that doesn’t go nearly far enough.

The panel’s recommendations will now go through a public hearing process, and Christie may throw more roadblocks in the way during his final months in office. A new governor may be more receptive, even Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, although Christie’s second-in-command doesn’t favor full legalization.

Supporters, however, remain hopeful that all obstacles to marijuana use will soon be cleared away when a new governor takes over in 2018. Legalization has bipartisan backing, and lawmakers have already been laying the groundwork to act when the timing is right. We can expect to hear plenty of talk not only about marijuana’s essential harmlessness, but the benefits of regulation that will assure safer products and — most importantly in lawmakers’ eyes — generate fresh tax revenue.

Public support for legalization continues to grow, and New Jersey would do well to meaningfully examine how marijuana use could help to curb the opioid addiction plague.

For now, though, let’s get more New Jerseyans in pain the help to which they should have access. The state should adopt the panel recommendations to expand the medicinal marijuana program.